The Moore Lab's Theme Song

​A long, long time ago in a place not too distantAn entomologist left home with her graduate assistantThey searched through trees and forest leaves until they found the oneA rare arachnid you might know: a pseudoscorpion

And when they caught th’elusive bug they straightaway wrote downThe who the when the where and how the specimen was foundThey wrote it on a little label with archival inkIf you saw that note today you could still read it I think

Out in the field yeah, out in the field yeahIt’s where you go to seek and find arthropods of every kindOut in the field yeah, out in the field yeah‘Cause if you need new specimens, the only place that you’ll find them isOut in the field

And when they got back to the school they put it on a slideThough insects on the other hand are pinned through their top sideEither way these arthropods are carefully preservedFor future entomologists to study and observe

The researchers sent out requests to collections everywhereTo borrow other specimens to contrast and comparethe differences between each one which helped them make the claimThat the species found was undescribed, so they gave it a name

Taxonomy yeah, taxonomy yeahA system used to classify all living things beneath the skyTaxonomy yeah, taxonomy yeah‘Cause if a species is brand new, naming’s what you’ve gotta doTaxonomy

The years went by, that specimen was all but long forgotUntil a student came along and had a brand new thoughtThe specimen was more unique than others had supposedTo make a genus based on it, is what he proposed

With DNA from specimens in collections here and thereHe tested his hypothesis using new softwareAnalyses revealed that this species was distinctAnd so he wrote a paper up He kept it quite succinct

Phylogeny yeah, phylogeny yeahA tree of every living thing linked by evolution’s stringsPhylogeny yeah, phylogeny yeah‘Cause if you really want to know how things diverged so long agoPhylogeny

Later on some people thought they ought to build a mineRight where that pseudoscorpion was found for the first timeThey met with entomologists to counsel and discusshow the plans that they had made might affect the bugs

The entomologists reviewed the labels on the slidesOn several pseudoscorpions of the species from that siteOnly known from that locale, the species would go extinctIf the project wasn’t moved to a new precinct

I hope you see yeah, I hope you see yeahCollections fill a special niche, they’re not something that you can ditchI hope you see yeah, I hope you see yeahFor our science to progress, we need collections to persistNow you can see